10 Benefits Of Using Schema Markup In SEO
Have you ever wondered why some search results appear in a different way than the others? Some might have stars beneath them, some others might have the numbers of their reviews, some even have a dropdown menu for FAQ.
Those layout features are actually called schema markup, or rich snippet. They help present information in more interactive and helpful ways for the users skimming through the search engine result pages ( SERPs ).
What is Schema Markup
While what you see in the search result page is the result of its implementation, schema markup is actually a special line of codes that is added into your website to help search engines better understand your website content. By understanding your website better, the search engine will be able to visualize your website content better in the search engine result page. This can ultimately lead to a higher click through rates, improving your conversion and boosting credibility.
In short, it’s a way for websites to communicate info with the search engine better and help them understand what the page is about.
Here are some examples of Product Schema Markup :
Notice the stars, rating, number of votes and price of the product or articles? Those are what schema markup looks like.
Here is what the coding looks like for it to appear like in the snippet above:
<script type="application/ld+json">{"@context": "https://schema.org/","@type": "Product","name": "Gaming Chair","description": "Best Gaming Chair Ever In Malaysia","review": {"@type": "Review","reviewRating": {"@type": "Rating","ratingValue": "4","bestRating": "5"},"author": {"@type": "Person","name": "Amirul"}},"aggregateRating": {"@type": "AggregateRating","ratingValue": "4.4","reviewCount": "89"}
</script>Types of Schema Markup
There are a few types of schema markup, each will show a different version of rich snippet in the search result pages. Some of the schemas are:
- Article Schema : This type of schema is mainly used for articles, such as news articles. Its main purpose is to highlight important info in the article and provide users with sneak peek on the article.
- Product Schema : This schema type is usually used by ecommerce to portray their products with richer information in search result pages. Some of the info they can show to the users are the product ratings, numbers of people rated it, and some of the top reviews
- Video Schema : This schema type is specialized for videos. It shows important info about the videos to the searchers such as video description, length, and publish date.
There are a huge variety of schema markup, each for different purposes and provide users with different snippets. You can explore some examples of schema markup commonly used through one of our articles explaining the different types of schema markup here.
10 Benefits Of Using Schema Markup
There are a lot of benefits for implementing schema markup, both in terms of SEO and in terms of user experience. Here’s some of them:
1. Improved Visibility in Search Engine Result Pages : Schema markup is used to create rich snippets including useful product or article information like ratings, price, availability, and reviews, to be displayed directly in the search results. This helps grab users attention, making your listing stand out better among other listings.
2. Increased Click-Through Rates ( CTR ) : Rich snippets with detailed product information can help encourage users to click on your listing instead of others. This will result in an increase in your website traffic. If you want to learn more ways to attract traffic to your website, you can refer to out article on 5 Ways You Can Use To Improve Your Website Traffic And Visibility.
3. Enhanced User Experience : Schema markup provides the users with more relevant information about your product or content before they even visited your website, which helps with improving their overall search experience.
4. Better Audience Targeting: Schema markup helps search engines understand your products better, which allows them to display your listings better to users with matching goals, such as users with intent to purchase or research the item.
5. Voice Search Optimization: Schema markup has an optimization effect on your product listings for voice search queries. This makes them easier to discover when users search using voice assistants.
6. Potential Ranking Boost: While having these features would not directly influence the ranking factor, having an improved click-through rates and user engagement from implementing schema markup can indirectly improve the ranking. If you’re looking to further boost your website ranking, our blog article on 10 Steps to Improve Your Google Search Ranking might be helpful for you.
7. Better Product Display in Google Merchant Center: Schema markup has a role in improving your product listings in Google Merchant Center. This can lead to better performance for the listing. Do note that you will have to register and integrate with GMC, as the GMC will not crawl the content by default.
8. Improved Brand Awareness: Having rich snippets displaying your product information can improve your brand recognition and credibility among new users.
9. Competitive Advantage: By utilizing the product schema markup, you can gain an edge over competitors who haven’t implemented the features, making your listings appear more informative and appealing to the users.
10. Easy Implementation and Maintenance: There are various tools and resources available to help you implement and maintain product schema markup for your website. Being easy to implement makes these features relatively user friendly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, implementing product schema markup features on your website is one of a great SEO strategy. It helps you display your product and content in a richer and more informative way. This leads to increased visibility, click-through rates and ultimately, conversions. With an easy and user friendly implementation process, product schema markup is a must use strategy for e-commerce websites aiming to thrive in today’s highly competitive online landscape.